Monday 26th October 2015 vs. Wednesday 4th November 2015
During my first shoot as a newborn baby photographer, I discovered that it is a lot more demanding than I had ever expected!
In preparation for the shoot, I had ordered lots of outfits and props online as well as material to use as backdrops and cosy blankets to lay baby onto. I was disappointed that some of the outfits did not arrive by the time the shoot came around - I'll definitely be sure to check deliveries are not coming all the way from China next time!
I managed to take some adorable photographs whilst the baby was swaddled during our first shoot together, but in order to get some of the more artistic images that I had imagined, we would need to unwrap her - which she wasn't very happy about!
Due to it taking a while to settle baby and the winter evening creeping in, I didn't manage to take as many usable shots as I would have liked and left feeling a little disheartened as this did knock my confidence in my ability as a portrait photographer. However, the next shoot definitely restored some of my confidence due to me being able to work on the areas that needed some improvement from the time before. This has definitely been a huge learning curve for me!
First of all, I made sure that I arrived earlier on in the day for our second shoot. This allowed us to have more time to relax and settle into each pose without being concerned that I would run out of daylight anytime soon. I think that the baby caught onto my more relaxed vibe this time too as she was much more willing to be positioned how I wanted without any struggle. It was also a big help that Mum had kept baby busy during the morning and had given her a big feed to make sure that she was nice and sleepy right on time for my arrival.
The next change I made was the use of a space heater. Although it was warm during the last shoot, due to baby being unhappy about being undressed, I wanted to make a big effort to make sure she was as comfortable as possible this time around. Combined with her already being sleepy, this worked like a charm! Mum suggested that we also use a hairdryer to provide some noise as she had discovered since last time that this helps baby drift of to sleep so this helped us even more.
In addition, I planned out each shot I wanted to take carefully this time and packed my outfits and props together accordingly. This methodical way of working allowed me to focus solely on taking the images without being concerned with deciding on the next outfit and background change in between shots. I was so excited to do our first shoot together that I brought every item I could think of with me and then felt overwhelmed when I was faced with deciding which look to go for.
The final change I made was down to luck and an amendment I would have loved to also make during the first shoot - using only natural lighting! Unfortunately, it was a dull day on our first photoshoot with lots of cloud cover diffusing the sunlight, meaning that I needed to use a flashgun to capture my images well. I did initially crank up the ISO on my camera settings but of course this resulted in grainy images, which is definitely no good for soft, natural baby photographs but having a harsh flash was not the best result either!
For shoot two, I turned some furniture to face the french windows, which made a huge difference to the mood of the images as well - they were much brighter this time around with no harshly lit areas with shadow like last time after using the flash.
Overall, although I did stress myself out following the first baby shoot, I have learnt so much for the future and I am glad that I did not let the issues I had deter me from trying again. I'm excited to try more photoshoots like this and will hopefully gain even more tips and tricks as I go on doing so.
In preparation for the shoot, I had ordered lots of outfits and props online as well as material to use as backdrops and cosy blankets to lay baby onto. I was disappointed that some of the outfits did not arrive by the time the shoot came around - I'll definitely be sure to check deliveries are not coming all the way from China next time!
I managed to take some adorable photographs whilst the baby was swaddled during our first shoot together, but in order to get some of the more artistic images that I had imagined, we would need to unwrap her - which she wasn't very happy about!
Due to it taking a while to settle baby and the winter evening creeping in, I didn't manage to take as many usable shots as I would have liked and left feeling a little disheartened as this did knock my confidence in my ability as a portrait photographer. However, the next shoot definitely restored some of my confidence due to me being able to work on the areas that needed some improvement from the time before. This has definitely been a huge learning curve for me!
First of all, I made sure that I arrived earlier on in the day for our second shoot. This allowed us to have more time to relax and settle into each pose without being concerned that I would run out of daylight anytime soon. I think that the baby caught onto my more relaxed vibe this time too as she was much more willing to be positioned how I wanted without any struggle. It was also a big help that Mum had kept baby busy during the morning and had given her a big feed to make sure that she was nice and sleepy right on time for my arrival.
The next change I made was the use of a space heater. Although it was warm during the last shoot, due to baby being unhappy about being undressed, I wanted to make a big effort to make sure she was as comfortable as possible this time around. Combined with her already being sleepy, this worked like a charm! Mum suggested that we also use a hairdryer to provide some noise as she had discovered since last time that this helps baby drift of to sleep so this helped us even more.
In addition, I planned out each shot I wanted to take carefully this time and packed my outfits and props together accordingly. This methodical way of working allowed me to focus solely on taking the images without being concerned with deciding on the next outfit and background change in between shots. I was so excited to do our first shoot together that I brought every item I could think of with me and then felt overwhelmed when I was faced with deciding which look to go for.
The final change I made was down to luck and an amendment I would have loved to also make during the first shoot - using only natural lighting! Unfortunately, it was a dull day on our first photoshoot with lots of cloud cover diffusing the sunlight, meaning that I needed to use a flashgun to capture my images well. I did initially crank up the ISO on my camera settings but of course this resulted in grainy images, which is definitely no good for soft, natural baby photographs but having a harsh flash was not the best result either!
For shoot two, I turned some furniture to face the french windows, which made a huge difference to the mood of the images as well - they were much brighter this time around with no harshly lit areas with shadow like last time after using the flash.
Overall, although I did stress myself out following the first baby shoot, I have learnt so much for the future and I am glad that I did not let the issues I had deter me from trying again. I'm excited to try more photoshoots like this and will hopefully gain even more tips and tricks as I go on doing so.